Now’s a good time to work on your LinkedIn Profile

Have you googled your name recently and seen what comes up? While you’re at Uni or college, it’s all fun and games and your online footprint will show exactly how much fun you had. But while we’re in lockdown, now’s a good time to work on your LinkedIn Profile.

What does your Online Footprint look like?

Let’s be honest, who doesn’t like posting a photo or video onto facebook / instagram / snapchat / tick-tok (enter your social platform here)? You’re out having a laugh with friends, and the world needs to know you are a highly sociable creature enjoying life to the full. Right? Wrong.

What we post stays there

It might not seem so important today that you have posted over a thousand photos of you having a drink, having lunch with friends, having dinner, shopping, sipping coffee, kicking a ball around, whatever. You have more or less documented every day of the year on the internet… And did we include how many times you were tagged in your friends photos? Wowser. That’s a lot. Unless you personally delete / extract / edit how many photos there are of you, it will stay there – forever.

Fast forward to the future when you’re looking for a job

Having a professional profile is not a bad thing to start working on now. Ok, so you might not have had many jobs to date, but you can start to build a nice profile, talk about your studies, any clubs you’re a part of, any volunteering work you’ve done. It all adds up to build a nice professional profile showing what a good team player you are.

Write an interesting bio

First rule of bio writing – write in the third person. Trust me, it is firstly, much easier to write about yourself when you don’t use “I” and secondly, you can build nice sentences from your activities using the third person voice. Talk about your studies, your part time job and blend into the mix any clubs or charity work you’re involved with.

Example bio for students

David Beckham (ok, use your real name!) is a third year student at Manchester University where he will major in Financial Markets in June 2020. Throughout this 3 year course, David has worked as an intern with two banks where he had the opportunity to put his learning into practice.
Alongside his studies, David has held several part time jobs, shelf stacker at Tesco, Customer services rep at a call centre and currently volunteers on Sunday at his local church. These activities have given David experience of working in a team and the ability to follow instructions maturely and proactively.

Now it’s your turn to write something.

Take a good photo

How does the saying go? A picture tells a thousand words, so you want your profile photo to look sharp and employable. Don’t bother adding a photo of yourself cropped at some party where you were laughing your head off. While you’re in lockdown, iron a shirt, comb your hair, put on some lippy and set the scene for a staged photo. Dress to impress.

Choose a nondescript background (plain wall without pictures hanging)
Turn your body slightly to the right and turn your face towards the camera
Optional to look away
Try different lighting, try different backgrounds, try different clothes
Smile 🙂
You’re aiming to capture head and shoulders in the shot, not full length

Job Profile

If you have had part time jobs etc, look them all up. 99% of companies and charities will have a profile. Add in your job title, what your responsibilities are and connect it to the company you worked for.

Education

Here you have the opportunity to select all the schools, colleges and universities you attended. Grades don’t make a mention here, you’re simply linking up to the education bodies.

Connect with companies on Linked In

Part of having a profile on LinkedIn is building your connections; your network. First up, follow The Grad Hub. Then look up your teachers, look up your university, look up companies that interest you. Follow them all.

Now’s the time to work on your LinkedIn profile.

Don’t fall into the trap of treating lockdown like an extended holiday. This is truly a strange time we are in and finding work will be highly competitive when you come out. Smarten up your online profile, and in the next blog we’ll talk about writing a killer CV.